January 2017 | Business View Magazine

194 195 person on site,”Anthony explains. “It takes years, not months, to develop competency in this occu- pation. We hire people of good character and train them to be great tower technicians. We pro- vide all tools, equipment, and personal protective equipment necessary to make them successful. We do not accept jobs we are not fully prepared to execute and we don’t allow our customers to pressure us into doing something the wrong way or to work outside our limitations.” In other words: It’s always “safety first.” Before starting STS, Anthony spent six years in the U.S. Air Force as a Telecommunications Systems Control Technician. “After the Air Force, I went to work as a lineman for a local telephone company,” he recounts. “Six months after that, I ended up at a company where I first started climb- ing towers. I fell in love with the tower work and started looking for an opportunity to develop a business out of it. I worked it part-time, after work and weekends. Over a four year period, I build it into a full-time enterprise.” In its early years, STS worked for local T.V., radio stations, and two-way radio facilities. “Most of Shenandoah Tower Service, Ltd. their sites were located on mountaintops in my neck of the woods in Virginia,”Anthony remem- bers. When the telephone wireless industry was just launching, he was eager to participate, and he’s proud of the fact that by being part of the tower building process, he helped usher in the widespread use of cell phones. “I had just enough experience when cellular began to build the first cellular towers in the county,” he says. “Prior to that, all I had was a pager. I’d be travelling down the interstate to get a job, the pager would go off, and I’d have to pull off, find a pay phone, and call back to see what was going on.” Today, STS has about 30 employees. At one time, the company had 160, but the wireless sector is notorious for its volatility. “A lot of It takes years, not months, to develop competency in this occupation. We hire people of good character and train them to be great tower technicians. We pro- vide all tools, equipment, and personal protective equipment necessary to make them successful. We do not accept jobs we are not fully prepared to execute and we don’t allow our customers to pressure us into doing something the wrong way or to work outside our limitations. DAVE ANTHONY PRESIDENT & CEO